NSA Reportedly Calls 'Top Secret' Meeting Ahead Of Vote On Amendment To Limit Their Spying Power

The National Security Agency reportedly called for a “top secret”
meeting with members of the U.S. House on Tuesday to argue
against a House amendment that would challenge the spy agency’s
power for the first time, according to an invitation circulated
in Congress and obtained
by the Huffington Post.

The House amendment, written by Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.),
would seek to reign in the NSA’s sweeping power to collect
massive amounts of American citizen’s communications data. The
amendment is co-sponsored by Democratic Rep. John Conyers. A vote
on the amendment is scheduled to take place sometime this week.

The invitation, to what HuffPost classifies as a “late-minute”
and “emergency” briefing, reads:

“In advance of anticipated action on amendments to the DoD
Appropriations bill, Ranking Member C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of
the House Intelligence Committee invites your Member to attend a
question and answer session with General Keith B. Alexander of
the National Security Agency.”

Those who attend the Tuesday meeting are prohibited from talking
about what they learned at the meeting.

“The briefing will be held at the Top Secret/SCI level and will
be strictly Members-Only,” the invitation adds.

The Amash amendment would put the House on record when it comes
to NSA snooping. The measure, which would be attached to the
Pentagon’s spending bill, “ends authority for the blanket
collection of records under the Patriot Act” and “bars the NSA
and other agencies from using Section 215 of the Patriot Act to
collect records, including telephone call records, that pertain
to persons who are not subject to an investigation under
Section 215.”

The section of the Patriot Act that Amash is targeting was the
subject of the first piece in The Guardian about NSA leaker
Edward Snowden’s revelations. A secret intelligence court has
interpreted the law to allow the NSA to collect hundreds of
millions of records on every American phone call under the
theory that such records might be useful in future terrorism
investigations. The intelligence community has claimed that the
law is useful in thwarting potential terrorist incidents.

But Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Senate
Intelligence Committee with access to classified details about
the program, said there is no evidence that the data collection
had been directly responsible for stopping any single plot.
Civil libertarians, meanwhile, are aghast at the NSA’s broad
interpretation of the law, and even the bill’s author said he
was surprised at how it is being used.

Because House ruled the amendment in order on Monday, the vote is
expected to occur sometime this week.

This will be Congress’ first time addressing the NSA’s massive
domestic surveillance efforts revealed by Snowden. The amendment
could potentially gain support from both Republicans and
Democrats.